Edward Mulhare (Captain Gregg)
Born in 1923 in Cork, Ireland, Mulhare was best known on stage as the star of "My Fair Lady." After the tv series "Ghost & Mrs. Muir," he costarred in Knightrider (1982 on) as Michael Knight's boss at the Foundation for Law & Government. 1985-88 he hosted the A&E network's reality series "Secrets & Mysteries," which looked at everything from Jack The Ripper and the Loch Ness Monster to "Magik & Witches." A 1985-87 spinoff series looked at "World War 2" from U-boats to "the Mythic Hitler" and Germany's secret weapons planned for 1946. Other than tv, Mulhare made only six movies:
"Hill 24 Doesn't Answer" (1955), a war movie about the battle for Jerusalem in 1948
"Signpost to Murder" (1965), psycho hides in a woman's house
"Von Ryan's Express" (1965), WW2 movie in which POWs steal a train in Nazi-occupied Italy and head for the border
"Our Man Flint" (1966), good James Bond copy starring James Coburn; there were 2 sequels (1967, 1976) without Mulhare
"Caprice" (1967), odd movie in which Doris Day & Richard Harris are spies
"Eye of the Devil" (1967) aka "13." Odd horror movie is low-key in attempt to be mysterious but just becomes plodding despite excellent stars & supporting cast: Donald Pleasence of Halloween, Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Sharon Tate, David Hemmings. It was Mulhare's last non-TV movie.
Rex Harrison (Captain Gregg, 1947)
Born Reginald C. Harrison on March 5, 1908 in England, he began his stage career at age 16 with the Liverpool Repertory Theatre. He broke into British films in 1930, until 1941 when he joined the RAF (flight lieutenant. In 1945, he returned to film work with movies in both England and Hollywood. In 1946 he starred as the king in the Oscar-winning first version of "Anna and the King of Siam" (later remade by Yul B. as "The King & I"). The following year he starred in "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir." Of his many later movies, he's probably best known for "My Fair Lady" as Prof. Henry Higgins, which he played on Broadway in the mid-1950s and then reprised in the 1964 Oscar-winning movie. In 1967 he starred in "Dr. Doolittle," which has become as popular as Willy Wonka on tv, but was a box-office flop at the time. He never had a tv series, though he starred in a number of tv-anthology shows in the 1950s with his second wife, Lilli Palmer. In 1948, gossip columns mentioned Harrison's name in connection with the suicide of actress Carole Landis. In 1979 he made his last three Hollywood movies:
"Ashanti" (1979) starring Michael Caine & Peter Ustinov
"The Fifth Musketeer" (1979), actually filmed in 1977 in Austria
"A Time To Die" (released in 1983), boring WW2 revenge movie
In 1986 he was in the 4-hour tv-movie "Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna," based on speculation that a daughter survived the Communist massacre of the royal family in Russia, no relation to the 1950s play & movie.
Hope Lange (Mrs. Muir)
Born 11-28-31 in Connecticut, Hope was the daughter of an actress and made her stage debut at age 12 in "The Patriots" (1943). "Bus Stop" (1956) starring Marilyn Monroe was the movie debut of both her and Don Murray, and they later married. Her third movie, "Peyton Place" (1957), got her an Oscar nomination. She made elevin movies 1956-74 ending with "Death Wish" (as the victim, turning mild-mannered husband Charles Bronson into a vigilante in this and 4 sequels). Then she returned to Broadway in 1977 after an absence of 34 years to star in "Same Time Next Year" (made into a 1978 movie without her, starring Alan Alda & Ellen Burstyn). Hope Lange's only other primetime tv series was as Dick's wife in "The New Dick Van Dyke Show" (1971-74).
Gene Tierney (Mrs. Muir, 1947)
Born 11-20-20 in Brooklyn, NY. The daughter of a prosperous stock broker, she went to private schools in Connecticut and Switzerland. When she became interested in acting, her father formed Belle-Tier Corporation and got her on Broadway in 1939, where she was seen in 1940 by Darryl F. Zanuck and signed for 20th Century Fox. The contract allowed her to return to Broadway between movies but unlike Hope Lange, she never did. She played a lot of "routine feminine leads" but also a number of good roles in popular movies. She is perhaps best known for the classic Vincent Price movie "Laura" (1944), in the title role as the subject of a murder plot. The following year she got her only Oscar nomination, for "Leave Her To Heaven" (1945), also with Vincent Price, as a murderous vamp who literally loves men to death (remade in 1988 as "Too Good To Be True").
She starred in "Ghost & Mrs. Muir" in 1947 and continued making movies until 1964. She published an autobiography in 1979 in which she claimed to have dated a PT-boat captain named John F. Kennedy during WW2. Gene Tierney married designer Oleg Cassini 1941-52, then began dating Aly Khan, the playboy son of Aga Khan (at the time the spiritual leader for millions of Moslems). When Aly left her at the request of his father, Gene suffered a nervous breakdown, spending 18 months in one institution and 8 months in another with a relapse. In the 1960s she appeared in a few movies and made several tv appearances, though I don't remember her guest-starring in a single episode of "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir."
Charles Nelson Reilly (Claymore)
After "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir," Charles Nelson Reilly was a regular on Dean Martin Presents in 1970 (a variety show), a role he played briefly in 1965 on The Steve Lawrence Show. His tv debut had been on Talent Scouts (1962-63, hosted in the 1950s by Arthur Godfrey), as one of the newcomer performers, along with impressionist Vaughn Meader (The First Family), George Carlin, Louise Lasser and Bill Dana (Jose Jimenez). In the 1970s, he starred in live-action kids shows like Lidsville as villains, and has most recently been seen in an infrequent recurring role on the "Drew Carey Show" as the head of a mysterious corporation that conducts strange experiments on people & animals. He also does a lot of live-stage work between tv gigs.
Reta Shaw (Martha the Housekeeper)
Reta Shaw was in a number of tv series 1950s-1969, usually as a housekeeper or the boss's wife. An exception was as one of the players in skits on The Betty White Show (Feb-April, 1958), a 3-month variety show that ran in the timeslot of Betty's cancelled sitcom "Date With The Angels" to finish out the season.
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
Sorry, no tv episodes are available
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